Images of early maps on the web

3. Themes (including People and Subjects)

The only
comprehensive listing of early map image sites. The
monthly additions are indicated thus, e.g. {March
2002} at the end of the
entry. Since the symbols { } are not used elsewhere, you can search on
those elements [enter Ctrl+F]; e.g. 2002} will find entries added
at any time in that year)

Please notify any corrections or additions to the editor, Tony
Campbell:

Make sure to consult its copyright statement
before using any of the images you find

an unauthorised copy of this page was placed at <
http://rodolphepilaert63.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/cartes-historiques-images/ >

Art &
Cartography. 'Marginalia in cARTography' (exploring 'the visual discourse between marginal artistic images and the
maps where they appear, as this marginalia sheds light on the content and purpose of the maps, their authors and
patrons, and on the historical period when they were made': an exhibition, curated by Sandra Sáenz-López Pérez, at the
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014; see the catalogue)
{March, 2014}

Blind. 'Atlas for
The Blind 1837' (high res. images of the whole work, which was published for children at the New England
Institute for the Education of the Blind in Boston; 'to the best of our knowledge, this is the first atlas produced
for the blind to read without the assistance of a sighted person' - David Rumsey Collection) {July, 2012}

Celestial.
'400 Years of the telescope' ('almost 100 celestial maps and prints from the 17th through the 20th
centuries', enlargeable to very high res. - Digitized Maps, University of Utrecht) {October, 2009}

Celestial.
‘Astronomy of the North American Indians’ (with three images, including a Pawnee star chart
(and a link to a Tulane site with a larger image) - Star Teach) [formerly at <
http://physics.unr.edu/grad/welser/astro/american.html >, now incorporated into a page
entitled 'Archeo-Astronomy Group Project'] {March, 2005; updated December
2006}

+ Celestial. 'Divine Sky: The
Artistry of Astronomical Maps' (an online exhibition, including images of the full sequence of star
charts from three atlases (1708 edition of Cellarius, the 1729 Flamsteed and Elijah H. Burritt's 'Atlas
Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens' (1850)), and astronomical drawings by Trouvelot,
zoomable to very high res., with footnoted commentary - Jacob Glenn, University of Michigan Shapiro
Science Library, 2009) {June, 2009}

'Ethnicity Maps of Southeastern Europe
(1930-1941)' (enlargeable to high res., with text to follow - 'a guide for researchers
and educators about the Volkstumskarte series of maps of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and
Yugoslavia ... created by Wilfried Krallert and the Publikationsstelle Wien (P-Stelle) in 1941' -
York University Libraries, Toronto) {July, 2013}

Geological mapping. 'Assynt's Geology' ('of
international importance for the discovery of how mountain ranges are formed', including a section 'History of geological maps' -
University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment) {July, 2007}

Geological mapping. ‘e-Geo: un mare di
carte!!!’ (3,100 images of Italian geological mapping, also including a few from
France, viewable via plug-in; probably several hundred of them from the 19th century - part of
a project to produce a complete inventory of Italian geothematic cartography - Centro di
Geotecnologie - Università di Siena) {February, 2005}

Globe. Ostrich egg.
'Oldest globe with New World discovered' ('A globe engraved on an ostrich egg, dated 1504, has emerged as perhaps
the oldest known globe to include the New World' - images in the Washington Post, 20 August 2013, relating to the
article by Stefaan Missinne, 'A newly discovered early sixteenth-century globe engraved on an ostrich egg: the earliest
surviving globe showing the New World', The Portolan: Journal of the Washington Map Society, 87 (Fall 2013):
8-24) {August, 2013}

Indigenous
Peoples. 'Pan Inuit Trails Atlas' (showing how the Canadian Arctic has long been explored and mapped by the
Inuit people - 'The Northwest Passage and the construction of Inuit pan-Arctic identities' project) {July, 2014}

Islamic. ‘The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels
for the Eyes’ (a hitherto unknown Arabic cosmographical treatise, the Kitab Ghara?ib al-funun wa-mulah?
al-?uyun, known as the Book of Curiosities - a copy, probably made in Egypt in the late 12th or 13th
century, of an anonymous work compiled in the first half of the 11th century in Egypt. The manuscript (viewable
in high res.) contains a unique series of maps and diagrams, most of which are unparalleled in any other
medieval work. These include diagrams of star-groups and comets; two world maps, one with a graphic scale (the
earliest surviving example); individual maps of islands and ports in the eastern Mediterranean; the Indian
Ocean, and Caspian Sea, etc., with fully searchable Arabic text and English translation - online publication by
The Bodleian Library (which acquired it in 2002) in collaboration with The Oriental Institute, University of
Oxford). [NB. The site is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox] {March, 2007}

Literature and Maps:
Image and Text' (an interesting, if confusing, site [being rebuilt] with groups of medium
res. images detached from their explanatory text; also follow up the list of links: 'Political
maps...Petruccelli's maps' - Chris Mullen, 'The visual telling of stories: a database dedicated
to the study of the narrative in visual form') {February, 2006}

Medieval. 'Cartographic Images' (a
large collection of low res. images (both whole maps and details) for a wide range of historically
important maps (i.e. they tend to be institutional 'treasures', often in manuscript), some
accompanied by extensive 'monographs' (i.e. descriptions) - Jim Siebold)

Missionary maps. Basel Mission Archives (6,700 maps,
sketches and plans, enlargeable to high res., relating to various parts of the world where the different Protestant
missions operated - select 'Browse - Geography' for an alphabetical index) {November, 2014}

News. 'WWII Newsmaps' (US
Army Newsmaps, 1942-5, 'published by the Special Service Division, Army
Service Forces, War Department of the U.S'; to browse the 212 zoomable images, enlargeable to high res. via Zoomify, see here - University of North
Texas Libraries) {August, 2008}

Pictorial maps. 'Harvard Map
Collection digital maps. E.D. Chase pictorial collection' (47 pictorial map images (1929-43), of different parts of the world,
enlargeable to very high res.; 'pictorial maps are a unique genre of cartographic materials and Chase's examples require
intensive study to really appreciate the artistry involved and the amount of detail that are a trademark of each of his maps'
(David Cobb) - Harvard Map Collection) {December, 2006; revised September 2007}

Piracy
(click on 'Pirate Maps' for a selection of medium res.scans - Beej)

Portolan charts (from this 'Subject' list select 'CADA/CHAR', then 'carte',
which brings up two portolan charts [Dijon - BM - ms. 0550 and Lyon - BM - ms. 0179] and a map
of Italy; to view you must left-click to create a pop-up which can be enlarged to medium res.
[the last three links are for the Lyon chart] - Enluminures (medieval MSS preserved in French
municipal libraries)) {January, 2006}

Portolan charts. Al-Sharafi al-Sifaqsî (enter, under
'Cote', Arabe 2278, then click on 'Chercher' and then 'Images'; medium res. images of a 16th century [1551?] Arabic atlas drawn in
Tunisia, comprising a chart for finding the direction of Mecca, a world chart and seven sectional charts of the Mediterranean -
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Richelieu, Manuscrits Arabe 2278) {November, 2005; updated February 2008}

Portolan charts.
Battista Agnese (undated [mid 16th century] portolan atlas, with (apparently) 13 charts, one in three parts, as well as other
drawings, making 20 images in all; to go directly to the high res. images click here - New
York Public Library, Spencer Collection (part of the Digital Scriptorium)) {December, 2007}

Portolan charts on Europeana (a
basic search for 'portolan' and 'portulan' found 48 & 28 images respectively - mostly from
the British Library and enlargeable only to medium res.; the site is growing) {February, 2010}

Portolan charts. 'Greek
Cartography: the Documents' (select 'portolan' for 37 Greek portolan works, from a database of manuscript
and printed maps, atlases and isolarii, 15th century to 1820, illustrated with thumbnails - 'PANDEKTIS: a
Digital Thesaurus of Primary Sources for Greek History and Culture', developed by the National Hellenic
Research Foundation) {December, 2009}

Portolan charts. Portuguese. 'TT
Online' (109 medium res. scans of MS portolan and other charts from the 16th century onwards, covering
various parts of the world associated with Portuguese history - Instituto dos Arquivos Nacionais Torre do
Tombo) {April, 2009}

Portolan charts.
'Siglos XIV y XV' (a collection of charts, from Carignano to the end of the 15th century, in chronological
order, from various acknowledged sources, enlargeable but not legible; see also the equivalent page for the
period up to 1677 (of the traditional region only, i.e. not America or Asia):
'Siglos XVI y XVII' - Portulanos blog) {July, 2009}

'Road maps'
(over 1000 medium res. images of road map covers, mostly from oil companies, arranged
geographically for all parts of the world and then by company, some captioned - Jon Roma)
{December, 2003}

Road
maps. 'Caught Mapping' (a 9-minute black and white documentary about the updating
process for printed road maps in the USA c. 1940. It is available as a download in various
formats or streamed over the Internet - link available via the Cartography blog) {July,
2006}

Road maps - also look in the appropriate
geographical page of this 'Web Images' section, and see under Map Collecting

'School Atlases (1699-1885)' (about 40 works, captured in their entirety, and
enlargeable to high res., arranged in chronological order - David Rumsey Collection)
{March, 2010}

+ Sea. ’La Mer, terreur et
fascination’ (a Bibliothèque nationale de France site for an exhibition co-organised with
the Ville de Brest and the Pôle associé Océanographie of Brest, 2005; as always with the BnF
there is interesting cartographic material (from the 13th century onwards) but it is hard to
find - see for example La mer dans les cartes, with 16 maps and charts (enlargeable to medium
res.), or Concours
cartes marines) {April, 2005}

Sea
charts. 'Cartografia nautica' (an extensive introduction to the history of cartography in
Italian, spread over 12 topic pages [see list in right margin] illustrated with small scans;
alternatively, you can select (via 'Ricerca dei termini') from a drop-down list of mapmaker
names and titles; see also Collezionismo:
cartografia); sea charts are featured and illustrated in other sections as well [see list
in left margin]) {August, 2005}

Sea charts see also under Portolan charts above

Silk maps see Escape maps above

'Soil map of
Belgium' (first click 'Collections', then click on the relevant thumbnail to bring up a
browsing list of the map published at 1:20,000 by the Comité voor het opnemen van de Bodemkaart
en de Vegetatiekaart van België, Brussels, 1950-1971; high res. images viewable
with/without MrSID plugin - from the collections of the former Rijks Geologische Dienst in
Haarlem and the former Bodemkundig Instituut van de Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht) {March, 2006}

Urban. 'Beelddatabank
stedenatlassen' (see 'Overzicht stedenatlassen' for a list of the full scans (enlargeable to very high res.),
including text, of 1,700 town plans and views from the atlases by Braun & Hogenberg, Blaeu, Janssonius, de Wit and others; the world coverage is
accessible via a town index - Amsterdam University Library) {July, 2008}

Urban. 'Historic
Cities' (enlargeable, very high res. images of over 500 early city
plans (mostly from Braun & Hogenberg, but with a large Jerusalem section) - Historic Cities Center of the Department of
Geography, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish National and
University Library ). See also under Web
Projects{October, 2001; updated April 2004}

Wall-maps. 'Wandkarten' (a hypertext note by Jan Werner about the maps in Amsterdam
University Library, leading to high res. Zoomify images) {February, 2010}

'Weather and Climate' (US daily weather maps
(1871-2002) in high res. DejaVu format; and meteorological and climatological data from the 19th century onwards, both US and
foreign - National Oceanographic Data Center (NOAA)) {March, 2008}

World War I. ‘The Gallipoli map collection’ (a small selection
from the collection of over 300 maps, arranged according to Landing (April 1915), Cemetery, Turkish and Trench categories,
enlargeable to high res. - Australian War Memorial) {April, 2007}

World War II. Federal Newsmaps (212
maps, enlargeable to high res. via Zoomify, 'published by the Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, War Department of
the U.S. and were prepared and distributed by the Army Orientation Course during the World War II era' - University of North Texas
Libraries) {August, 2008}

World War II. 'OSS
WWII Maps' (152 maps, enlargeable to fairlyhigh res., produced by the US Office of Strategic Services -
Penn State Maps Library, on Flickr) {July, 2014}

World War II see also under Escape maps above

World War II. 'WWII Newsmaps' (US
Army Newsmaps, 1942-5, 'published by the Special Service Division, Army
Service Forces, War Department of the U.S'; to browse the 212 zoomable images, enlargeable to high res. via Zoomify, see here - University of North
Texas Libraries) {August, 2008}